


Sunsets

by cynatnite



Series: You Belong To Me [6]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Alternate Universe, Clint's confused, Loki is Not Amused, M/M, The other Clint is confused
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 13:35:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5667925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynatnite/pseuds/cynatnite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint's back on Earth only Stark is walking, Natasha isn't old anymore, Coulson is Director of SHIELD, Thor threw a hammer at him and Loki is asshole Loki. The other Clint looks at him like he's evil Mirror universe Clint. </p>
<p>Or how Clint realizes he made the biggest mistake of his life by leaving Asgard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunsets

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for taking so long in getting this last story started. I already had it written in my head, but getting to work on it took some prodding by some of you. I needed the reminder in why I love this universe so much. 
> 
> Thank you all for urging me to get this thing done:)

When Clint opened his eyes, the bright lights above him hurt so much that he closed them. He moved his head and the pulsing ache hurt so much that he couldn’t hold back the groan. Clint then realized he was lying on a cold floor. He put his hand to his head in a failed attempt to ease the thundering pain.

Clint moved to his side and lifted his head. He was a little dizzy and when it passed, he raised his eyes and saw that he was in a cell of some kind. White walls and a floor was his first observation. In front of him looked to be a glass partition. Clint finally sat up and looked to his right. It wasn’t just the other cell that got his attention.

“Loki? What the hell?”

Loki tilted his head, knelt and leaned forward just a bit. “What creature are you?”

“What are you talking about? What are you doing here?”

It was the eyes Clint noticed first. These were cold, appraising with disdain.

“Do not mock me,” Loki spat with contempt.

Clint needed to clear his head. He pushed to his feet. That was when he noticed the small bandage on the crook his elbow. His blood had been drawn.

“I landed at Stark Tower, but nothing’s right. I mean, it’s right, but it’s not.”

“You must be insane.” Loki put his hands behind his back and turned.

“Why are you acting like this? Did something happen on Asgard?”

Loki swung around. “How do you know me, creature?”

Closing his eyes to get a handle on the raging headache, Clint breathed before speaking. “It felt like I was getting knocked around like a ball in a pinball machine. But everything’s different.” He opened his eyes. “How’s that possible?”

“The Bifrost?” Loki questioned. “You’ve journeyed upon the Bifrost?”

“A thousand times,” Clint answered as if Loki should’ve known better. Then he remembered. Stark, Natasha and another Clint. “Shit. Can someone travel back in time on that thing?”

Loki moved forward. “Tell me all you know.”

“That’s enough,” a voice said over the intercom.

Clint looked around. It sounded like Steve.

“Hey, Steve, is that you? Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on around here?” Clint was growing frustrated by the confusion in his own head.

A door opened and on the other side of the glass partition his mirror self appeared. Clint stepped back. Swallowing the hard lump in his throat, he could feel the anxiousness in his chest growing.

“What the hell are you?” Clint asked.

The Other Clint’s eyes were fixated with furious determination. “Talk.”

“Talk? I think it’s you who better start telling me what the hell is going on around here?”

“It’ll go easy on you if you tell us where you came from and how Loki made you?”

“Nobody made me, asshole, except my parents! Where’d you get the fucking idea that Loki made me?” Clint knew he was losing his mind. “Someone tell me what the hell is going on!” Clint yelled.

“Are there more of you?”

“I’m not saying a goddamn thing until I get some answers of my own.” Clint folded his arms and glared at himself.

The door came open again and Steve, Natasha, Tony, Bruce and Steve walked to stand next to the Other Clint.

“Where did you come from?” Natasha asked.

“From Asgard. I came through the Bifrost. I was supposed to land in Central Park and instead I wind up here, but here isn’t the way I remembered it the last time I was here.”

“When was that?” Other Clint asked.

“A few weeks ago.” Clint almost mentioned the latest battle and the joint venture between Asgard and Earth, but held back. He needed more information from them. “Maybe I went back in time or something, because it’s like Manhattan all over again when I see Loki…this Loki.”

“This Loki?” Tony asked confused. “As in another Loki?”

“You think you’re confused,” Clint muttered. He took another look at Loki and there was no mistaking this wasn’t the Loki he loved. Then he turned his attention back to the group. “I don’t know what the hell happened, but something was wrong with the Bifrost.”

“The Bifrost has operated perfectly for a millennium,” Loki stated matter-of-fact. “This creature is not of Asgard.”

“Shut it or I will,” Other Clint ordered with steel in his voice.

“Wait, Clint,” Steve said. He went to Loki. “Can it send someone back in time?”

“Of course not,” Loki scoffed. “There are complicated fail-safes by both magic and technology to ensure the Bifrost cannot be tampered with and to prevent colossal mistakes such as this creature claims.”

“Stop calling me that,” Clint swore clenching his fists. “I’m not lying!”

“Well, you sure are different,” Bruce said folding his arms. “He’s got the genetics of Clint Barton, but he’s not Clint, if that makes any sense.”

“Explain,” Steve said.

“For one thing, he’s probably nearly as strong as you, Steve. His muscle density almost matches yours. I bet with more testing we’d find out more. He’s still human, though.”

“Jesus, of course, I’m human.” Clint was growing weary. He looked at Natasha. “Nat, you know me…well, him,” Clint said motioning to the Other Clint. “Look at me and say if you think I’m lying. You’re a fucking lie detector.”

He watched her as she studied him, then shook her head. Natasha looked at the group. “I know Clint’s tells and if anything this guy believes what he’s saying.”

That was something, Clint wasn’t sure if it would help him any. The door opened again the figure that came through brought a sigh of relief from Clint.

“Phil, can you help me out here at all?”

“This him?” Phil asked. He saw Natasha’s nod. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re Clint Barton.”

“I am,” Clint insisted. “Something happened when I left Asgard. I was falling through the Bifrost and somehow landed in the past, I think.”

“If you’re from the future,” Phil said. “How far?”

“About 27 years give or take.”

Phil sighed and shook his head. “Either you’ve got the number of Dolly Parton’s plastic surgeon or you’re the stupidest life model decoy ever made.”

“That’s because I had an apple from Idunn,” Clint explained. He heard Loki’s snort of laughter and ignored it. “I’m telling you the truth.”

Clint was growing desperate. He looked at Natasha. “You’re a Pinterest freak. You do Better Homes and Gardens as a hobby. Tony, Just Another Really Very Important System. Steve, Phil watched you sleeping. Bruce, that new formula you’re working on to slow your heart rate to damn near dead won’t work. Phil, aside from being a Captain America fanboy, you also own every Elvis Presley movie and song. You keep planning to go to Graceland on his birthday, but SHIELD has you too damn busy.”

He saw their eyes and knew it was making a difference.

“Guys, I swear to you, I don’t know how this happened or why. I gotta get back to where I’m from and I need your help to get there.”

Phil turned. “Any of you been talking to him?” They shook their heads. He glanced at Loki. “I want to see the video of their interaction when he woke.”

“Hey, and when you see Fury, tell him I know he cries when he watches Old Yeller,” Clint added.

That was when he realized he said the wrong thing. The group had gone deathly silent.

“Wait, where is Fury? Why isn’t he here yelling?” Clint asked.

Phil stepped forward. “Your friend over there put his spear through Nick’s chest and killed him.”

“What?” Clint suddenly couldn’t breathe and he stepped away. “No, no, that’s not right. He tried to kill you, Phil. You were brought back by a secret project no one knew about.  Director Fury ordered it.”

“I’m SHIELD director now,” Phil said.

“That didn’t happen.” Clint found a bench and sat. “Fury retired to Haiti to raise orphans. Natasha became SHIELD director.”

Bruce came to the glass. “Are you saying everything is different than what you remember?”

“Yeah,” Clint answered as if it was a ridiculous question. “Loki came through the portal at PEGASUS, landed on the platform. He got me, Selvig and another agent after killing half a dozen or so others. He led me around by the nose for nearly a week.”

“Four days,” Loki dryly corrected.

“Natasha knocked the shit out of me and I came back. We fought Loki and the Chitauri and we won after Stark made the touchdown pass through the portal. Fury never died. When I left, he was still in Haiti.”

“Asgard?” Tony pointedly asked.

“What the hell were you doing on Asgard in the first place?” The other Clint questioned.

Clint stilled. As far as these Avengers were concerned, Loki was still an enemy. What would they say or do if he told them of their years together, their children they’d raised? If they didn’t think him bat crazy, he’d be categorized as an enemy combatant and locked away. His chances of ever getting back to his own time and seeing his family again would disappear.

“Conference room,” Phil stated.

As the Avengers filed through the door, Clint sat on the floor with his back to the wall.

Loki moved to the glass dividing them.

“Why were you on Asgard? What prompted you to leave such a place for this muddy world?”

Clint leveled his gaze at Loki.

“It’s like ‘Back to the Future with Fight Club rules’,” he answered. “Rule number one: Don’t tell the future. Rule number two: Don’t break rule number one.”

Loki sneered at Clint in frustration and turned away.

~*~

Once in the conference room, Phil waited until everyone was seated.

“Observations?”

“Maybe he’s telling the truth,” Bruce offered.

Clint snorted. “Like hell he is. Bruce, you said yourself, he’s been augmented somehow.”

“I never said that. His genetics have been altered, but I can’t get a clear reading if it was artificial or by some other means.”

“Well, he’s not me!” Clint bit out.

“No, he’s another you,” Tony muttered.

“Stark?” Phil asked.

Tony walked around the table as he talked. “Well, he recognized us obviously, but differently. He seemed genuinely surprised. We are talking about a wormhole.” The room looked blankly at him and Tony rolled his eyes. “You’d think by now I still wouldn’t be the only one reading the material.”

“It’s purely theoretical,” Bruce reminded Tony.

“What?” Steve asked.

“The Einstein-Rosen Bridge was as well,” Tony said with a raised eyebrow.

“And there are safeguards,” Bruce argued.

“Of which may have fucked physics six ways to Sunday if external forces were at work they were unable to compensate for!”

“Enough!” Natasha interrupted.

“Share with the rest of the room,” Phil ordered Tony.

“Thor travels to Earth through a wormhole,” Tony explained. “If what Loki said is true, that whatever they have on the other end controls it, then who is to say something can’t throw it out of whack?”

“The problem with that,” Bruce said coming forward. “is it takes an undefinable amount of power to create a wormhole in the first place. To be able to thwart its direction would take something that is much more powerful and impossible to calculate.”

“The Asgardians are so fucking ahead of us, they’ve got their hands on the ability to shoot a wormhole from who the fuck knows where,” Tony pushed back.

Clint sighed and rubbed his eyes. “None of this is telling us where the fuck this asshole came from or what the hell he is doing here.”

“A wormhole cuts through space/time, Legolas,” Tony said. “If something more powerful even yanks it off by a few micrometers, you could wind up in the middle of the stone age fifty million light years from here.”

“Let me get this straight,” Steve said with a sigh. “That Hawkeye was in a future where he doesn’t age and is on Asgard. He comes back to Earth only he’s in the past where he’s already here. That doesn’t make sense.”

“It does if he’s an alternate Hawkeye,” Tony suggested. “He said himself things were the same, but different from the time he knew it. Our Fury is dead. His isn’t.”

Phil sighed and took a seat. “We need more information. First off, Dr. Banner, do a more thorough physical on him. What are the precise differences? Natasha, I want you to take apart the cellphone he had on him. If what Stark says is true, we’ll need as much intel as possible to figure out exactly where he came from. Stark, consult with Dr. Foster. A detailed analysis of what exactly happened to get this alternate Hawkeye here might help us find some answers. When Thor returns, get as much information about the Bifrost as he’s able to provide.”

“And me?” Clint asked. “You keeping me off this because he might be Mirror Universe me?”

“You’ll have the most difficult task out of everyone, Barton.”

“What’s that?” Clint smirked.

“Relocate him in one of the apartments away from Loki. Get him to open up about what brought him here. Interrogating him will be a waste of time.”

“So, I’m supposed to be his buddy?” Clint asked incredulously. “Bond over 49er’s games and a bowl of popcorn?”

Natasha chuckled and everyone looked at her. The Black Widow never had a sudden outburst of laughter.

“Coulson, you may have just given Clint a mission he can’t complete.”

“Why’s that?”

“Have you ever known him to get along with himself?”

Clint lowered his head on the table. “Fuck! How is this my life?”

**Author's Note:**

> Will update as often as possible.


End file.
